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The CPA PE Playbook: Private Equity 2026 Outlook & Strategy Guide

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The Definitive Guide to Private Equity’s Transformation of the CPA Profession

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By CPA Trendlines Research

The accounting profession is changing faster than at any time in its modern history—and private equity is driving the shift. More than $30 billion in new capital has entered CPA firms since 2020, igniting a powerful wave of consolidation, modernization, and strategic reinvention. Firms that once relied on incremental growth and traditional partnership structures are now operating as high-performance platforms built for scale, technology adoption, and national reach.

The CPA PE Playbook is the most comprehensive analysis available today on this historic transformation.

If you want to know where the profession is heading, how PE-backed firms are competing, and what it will take to thrive in the next decade, this is the report you need.

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PRICING, FEES & BILLING RATES

Value Pricing: Three Major Drivers

It’s a perfect storm. Embrace it.

By Jody Padar
Radical Pricing – By The Radical CPA

Ron Baker is known as the value pricing guru in the accounting space. He was way before his time in separating the price of labor from the value of a product. Labor-based pricing is based on the difficulty of doing a task. Value pricing looks at everything from the client’s viewpoint. His argument is as follows: the value you provide your customer, regardless of the deliverable, is worth way more than the hour.

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While value pricing isn’t new, automation has driven it to the forefront. Automation gives CPAs up to 90 percent more time to provide valuable services based on their expertise, knowledge base and experience.

Although it was clear the cloud was going to have a disruptive impact on our business model, Ron Baker would always explain: it’s not the technology that’s going to make value pricing the way to go, the value’s always been there.

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MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Why Solos Need Practice Continuation Agreements

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It’s a favor, so negotiate generously.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Mergers: Your Complete Guide

A Practice Continuation Agreement (PCA) is a written contract between a sole practitioner and another firm for the latter to take over the solo’s practice, either permanently or temporarily, in the event of a sudden, unexpected event that prevents the solo from working, most commonly a health issue.

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Logically, it would make total sense for every one of the 30,000 sole practitioners in the U.S. to have a PCA in place. After all, the solo has no other partners to take her place and in the vast majority of cases, the solo’s staff doesn’t have the skill level or the certifications needed to run the practice in the absence of the owner.
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MARKETING & SALES

Eight Life Questions for Your Business Success

young businesswoman looking in mirror

Ignoring personal issues will affect your work.

By Martin Bissett
Winning Your First Client

You know the identity of your first client, and if you buy into you, then there’s a good chance of potential clients being prepared to do so, too.

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This is what we must remember about the purchasing of professional services such as accounting. If your prospective client is a Grade A or B style opportunity for your firm, then they are not buying the services you provide per se. The services are the vehicles of delivery; the means to the end.
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PRO Member Exclusive

Quality Work Vs. Quality Service

 

young man in suit staring at laptop screen

They’re not the same thing.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

Over the years, I have enjoyed reading and internalizing the insights of David Maister, highly regarded author, speaker and practice management consultant.

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Many years ago (circa 1993), Maister wrote a professional service firms article titled “Quality Work Doesn’t Mean Quality Service.”
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PRO Member Exclusive

Make Tax Season More Fun

four young happy office employees

Twelve ways it can be better.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Tax season presents exciting opportunities for accounting firms and their staffs. Every moment should be enjoyed and appreciated.

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Following are 12 reasons:

1. Tax season is profitable and accounting is a business where we try to maximize our earnings. Sure, there is a great concentration of work in a short period with occasional pressure, but if handled properly, the work can be managed sensibly with tensions at reasonable levels. I also believe much of the pressure is self-induced by poor scheduling, inadequate quality control and the lack of uniform systems that are followed by everyone in the firm, particularly the partners.

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